Eiji Aonuma – the producer behind many of the titles in the Legend of Zelda series – announced today on Miiverse that Epona will be joining the cast of available weapons in the recently released Hyrule Warriors.

Epona is featured as a weapon seemingly exclusively for Link, rather than being a seperate character. Aonuma-san discusses the reasons and thinking behind this choice in his Miiverse post:

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He also tentatively tells us to expect additional scenarios and costumes to be included in the DLC pack, but does not give any specific details.

Hyrule Warriors' Master Quest DLC pack will be released on 16th October this year in Europe and North America.

Are you raring to get some cavalry action in Hyrule Warriors? Let us know in the comments section!

I'm enjoying this game, but didn't think I would pick up any of the DLC. I may be happily tired with it by the time the main story ends, and more characters won't make me want to come back for more. But that's OK with me.

I'm having too much fun not to get it. I want it all lol. I'm up till 4 in the morning playing it when I should've went to bed 2 hours ago. I love how different weapons changes you move set drastically!

Reading comments from those who play the game from various comments/forums section make me wanna buy it now than wait for a price drop. Is there an exclusive DLC or skins that I won't be able to buy/use if I don't register the game before a specific date (Europe)?

@BensonUii You get the Ganondorf costumes by registering the game between September the 19th and October the 17th in Club Nintendo. All the other costumes are preorder costumes and can be bought in the eshop in the future.

On topic: Awesome, I just hope that Epona doesn't play as slow as some of the other characters. But given that Epona is a horse this shouldn't be a problem

This is my second favourite Warriors game after Dynasty Warriors 5, which had a huge character roster and an 8 mission story mode for each character, with more fun added from X Xtreme Legends and Empires.Xtreme Legends and Empire add ons for Hyrule Warriors would be totally amazing.

OH MY!!!!The collective DLC pack seemed like good value but I'm waiting to see what they do with the additional "scenarios" and adventure maps.I'll be disappointed if they just release a reshuffled map of the original, New Game Plus style.

@RainbowGazelle Sorry, thought that most of the people already knew that, since the game released a month ago in Japan. I edited my post though and I hope I didn't take away from your experience

@BensonUii As far as I know these are the only packs that are included in the season pass: Master Quest Pack, Twilight Princess Pack, Majora's Mask Pack and Boss Pack. Wether the costumes are included or not, hasn't been confirmed yet. But I doubt that they are included.

At first I found the game mildly enjoyable, but as you come up to where the levels split off it really kicks in. Perhaps because of the added characters and familiar scenarios? I wasn't going to get the DLC, but at this moment I'm really warming to the idea. Tell a lie, I'm beyond warming and getting it.

@Topic Ok, now i really fear that Ruto might get Lord Jabu-Jabu as a weapon Set But seriously, this is great. Not only does it cater to one of the games sad omissions (Horses or mounts in general), but takes a pre existing character, and turns him into a new one with a simple "weapon"

So, lets just see if Link holds a candle against Ma Chao on horseback I mean, from Links Sword endscreen, Epona already looks as big and sturdy as Red Hare, just not that demonic

Played this several hours yesterday but now I'm on a trip and won't get to play it until Tuesday at the soonest... But I love it so much and preordered all the sets! And Epona sounds like a fun "weapon", can't wait to try her!

this is a lot more fun than the reviews suggest. and i cant wait to wade through the hordes on Epona. it runs at 60fps during battle its only the average story cut scenes that are 30. i dont think the reviewer liked a dynasty warriors zelda concept, the gameplay is better than Orochi Hyper3 its much clearer whats going on and has far less drop in drop out.

Huh. I didn't realize that Epona wasn't in the game already. I just figured since there are horses in Dynasty Warriors that she'd be a shoe in. I wonder if they'll give Ganondorf his black steed of death.

@TheJudge@Tsurii897 I opened my cover to check and my AU version has a club Nintendo card. I only opened it the once to put the disk in my Wii U a week ago and it has stayed in the whole time, and clearly I was more interested in playing the game than properly searching for the card.

@TheJudge@Tsurii897 I opened my cover to check and my AU version has a club Nintendo card. I only opened it the once to put the disk in my Wii U a week ago and it has stayed in the whole time, and clearly I was more interested in playing the game than properly searching for the card.

@MadAdam81 Dark Link looks exactly like the Dark Links you meet later in the game, he's pretty awesome, I've played as him quite a lot already. It was rather funny to see the cutscene in which 'they' extract Dark Link from Link's shadow, since I was playing as Dark Link already.

So Epona will be a weapon for Link... Dark Link holds black versions of the weapons... Will Epona be black as well? That'd be AMAZING!

@BensonUii man I was on the fence about this game as I've never really cared much for the Warriors games. I picked up after work yesterday and was totally blown away got sucked in for hours! It was definitely worth the coin.

Im must admit im very surprised how much im enjoying Hyrule Warriors…the game is a lot of fun and the Zelda fan-service is incredible!

@rjejr the Hero Pack is the DLC (season pass) that's available in the eshop to buy. The other DLC like ganon costumes or pre-order DLC u can just enter the download code at the eshop home screen……overall this is sum sweet DLC! Now all we need is the SSB WiiU & Captain Toad release dates right LOL!

SSB U and CT:TT are never getting release dates, they are just going to be on store shelves some day in 2014. 4 days until Oct, at that point naythig ncomin gout n 2014 should have date, not "holiday' or "winter". Though when we finally get dates I'll have to change my avatar again, Mitch Miller is mocking the current release dates.

@rjejr The Hero of Hyrule Pack (season pass) which costs $20 consists of the following: October 2014- 1 new scenario, 1 new weapon, New adventure map & 2 costumes. November 2014 - 1 new character, 1 new weapon, new adventure map, 2 new costumes. January 2015 - 2 new characters, New adventure map & 3 new costumes. February 2015 - 2 New game modes.

If im not mistaken the adventure map in itself is huge and has a ridiculous amount of replay value and we're getting 3 as part of the Season pass which in my humble opinion i worth it alone! But u could wait to get it separate i remember how u felt about all the glorious Yoshi skins LOL also i believe i gave ur comment a yeah on miiverse when u asked about registering this on club nintendo im sure u could tell which was my comment LOL either way my friend this is a season pass im absolutely going to support!

@Melkac: I don't see a complete edition popping up for a long time. Maybe never. If this was Eidos, EA, etc, you'd see it in 6 months at half the price with all DLC included. With Nintendo, I'll say 10 years from today. 😄 @WanderingPB. ....um what? That DLC is ridiculous! That's like an entire extra game!! I had hesitated picking up my pre order from Gamestop, but I'll be doing so tommorow. Thank you!

coming from someone who is not a dynasty warrior fan, but a huge zelda fan...get this game! If you don't have a wii u, then get both. I'm going to buy a dynasty warrior game next just to thank tecmo for how awesome Hyrule Warriirs is.

@Spoony_Tech - Dark Link does look cool but Im in no rush. I burst out laughing filling out the Club Nintendo survey when they asked if I bought the game to get the Ganon skins. I wanted to write - "Yeah thats it, I spent $65 to get 2 free costumes." I did fill out the survey to get the free skins, but I bought the game to play the game, I dont care about the skins.

@WanderingPB - Yeah I figured that was you on Miiverse w/ your LOL, most people who replies to me are usually less kind

I was surprised to see PolarBear though, based on your avatar I always assumed PB stood for PaBloPicasso. The Wandering Pablo Picasso would make a great beatnik novel. Strange but true.

As for the season pass, do you really think its an entire new adventure map, I read it all and thought they just meant 1 more square on the board. Even a smaller map of 10 squares each and it would be an easy decision to purchase.

@rjejr It saddens me that the symbolism of Kakashi and Obito has completely gone over ur head but just like i tell my son im sure you'll appreciate it when u learn more about it Pablo Picasso huh?…well any compliment coming from Weird Al Yankovic himself is fine by me but yeah just a wandering polar bear LOL! As for the DLC…well i believe any DLC is pretty much a gamble that the player takes trusting that the developer will give them more quality content thats similar to the final product that was delivered. Since Nintendo is a part of this i feel that that this DLC will deliver besides kinda like the glorious Yoshi colors that u loved so much soon you'll have the exquiste Epona to calm ur fears LOL! But seriously like i said about the MK8 DLC im investing in those 16 new tracks and in Hyrule Warriors those adventure maps by themselves are definitely worth it! But why dont u play some of the adventure mode and see how u like it and that should help ur decision on whether this season pass is for u

@Melkac Never happening, TK games are always 'complete' on release, they just always have a ton of follow up DLC support that TK either convert and transfer from their other games (since they use the same engine), or they develop once the initial game is complete.

DW8 XLC on PS4 has over 50 separate pieces of optional DLC, they were released bi-weekly since release and there is still more to come. WO3U also has a bi-weekly dlc release schedule that I expect will deliver dlc over the next few months. The season pass for Hyrule Warriors is the best valued deal for a warriors game dlc ever.

@RainbowGazelle The one I spoilered? You have to beat the stage that is in the bottom-left corner in adventure mode. You have to search for it with an item first. Just press X on the field and use the required item.

I hoped Epona would stand around in certain missions waiting for the playable characters to ride her just like in Samurai Warriors 3. After beating Hyrule Warriors I was a little disappointed they haven't used the horse mechanics for at least for one level. However, Epona now announced as DLC, being a weapon, seems fresh and I'm a little excited. Looking forward to it.

I wish Koei Tecmo would have consulted with Nintendo's technical engineers on how to get the most out of the Wii U. I don't see anything in Hyrule Warriors that suggest the Wii U couldn't run this game at 60fps..... Bayonetta 2 looks 10x better fidelity wise and its a solid 60fps. I guess some developers can't be arsed to custom fit a game to the hardware its going on.

I'm a frame rate snob that thinks all action games should be 60fps.... I agree 100% that this game is far better than the reviews suggest...the game is easily a solid 9/10 by how much fun I'm having.